Australia’s Digital payments volumes continue to rise

Global digital payment volumes are predicted to increase by an average 10.9 per cent through to 2020, reaching nearly 726 billion transactions, according to Capgemini’s World Payments Report 2017.

Most of the growth is being driven by emerging economies, with 20 per cent volume growth. Australia is seen as an outlier, with nearly 10 per cent growth in non-cash transaction, compared to 8.9 per cent last year.

Globally, Australia’s is ranked 4th for non-cash transactions per capita, behind the US, South Korea and Denmark.

“From our analysis non-cash transaction volumes hit an all-time high of 9.6 billion transactions in 2015, up from 8.7 billion transactions in 2014. Australia continues to rank amongst the highest non-cash transaction users per capita globally, making us a litmus test for new and innovative solutions,” said Phil Gomm, Banking and Capital Markets Industry Practice Director at Capgemini Australia.

“This does not argue well for ATMs where we expect to see ongoing consolidation, despite the recent fee free initiatives designed to encourage take-up, the reality will be an ever decreasing population of these machines.

“For many of us, cash will become a thing of the past as we migrate from plastic cards to our preferred digital wallets, with incentives provided to encourage our loyalty,” adds Gomm.

Despite increased adoption of digital payments, cash remains in the mainstream. The report states that mobility, connected homes, entertainment, and media are expected to boost non-cash transactions in the future, as will alternate channels, including contactless, wearables, and augmented reality.

Increased digitisation of corporate B2B payments is affecting regional trends. In mature APAC markets, small and medium-sized businesses are using digital invoicing, virtual cards, and cloud-based finance and accounting. In Emerging Asia, charge cards are popular among corporates to simplify and secure supply-chain payments.

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